'Prometheus' Unused Effects Shots Offer CGI vs. Make-Up Comparison

We've been just as obsessed with what was in Ridley Scott's Prometheus as what didn't make the final cut of the film. We've known for quite some time that when Ridley Scott's Prometheus hits Blu-ray on October 9, 2012 it will arrive with plenty of special features, including a few deleted scenes. However, Fox hasn't disclosed precisely what those scenes will be, just that there will be 15 minutes of them total and that they will not be inserted back into the film (considering Scott's track record, you'll have to wait for the inevitable director's cut to see the film that way).

Today's images, however, are unlikely to find their way into any of those deleted scenes. That's because they're from a scene that's already in the movie, they're just a digital version of it that wasn't used.

Warning, Spoilers Incoming!

The scene in question is Fifield's mutated attack on the crew of the Prometheus. What ended up in theaters was a version of the scene that used practical makeup effects to turn actor Sean Harris into a mutated abomination, but Ridley Scott was unsure how that version would play, so he also filmed it with a makeup-free Harris with the intention of having WETA create his transformation with CGI. The special effects-loving magazine Cinefex (via Bloody Disgusting) has gotten their hands on what that CGI version would have looked like.

As you can see, his face is relatively the same, but it would have involved a digital elongation of Harris' limbs to give him a more spindly, almost spidery look. It's a creepy-looking design for sure, but we still think we prefer the makeup version that was used:

It's one thing to buy Fifield's physical mutations in the first place, to push them that far would have been a bit much. That's precisely why these other makeup versions of Fifield were abandoned as well:

Those last few images come to us from Titan's great Prometheus: The Art of the Film hardcover, which is a must-own for anyone interested in the design process behind Prometheus. Even if you don't love the movie (I didn't, but maybe many inevitable Blu-ray rewatches will fix that), you can't hate on the artistry that went into its creation. If anything, the abandoned CGI shots above only reinforce our admiration for the tremendous look Scott pulled off for his first sci-fi film in decades.

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